Excited to follow your uNL trek Verneer. I myself just started playing again after a decent hiatus and have started a similar quest, starting with only $10. There have been ups and downs, but so far, so good.

Really excited to learn from your knowledge as you make your way through the micros. Appreciate all the time you're putting in to help all of us out!

Jan 13th Summary:

A very good day with limited volume. It's amazing what reviewing one's bad session can do as you try to move forward.

Today, best day yet:



My current BR is at $800 and I'm very confident that I'll break $1,000 before the end of the month. The decision to start taking some preliminary shots at 25NL on a shorter BR seems to be paying off big dividends. The downside was limited and the potential upside was huge.

Depending on volume, it's possible for me to even break $1,500 which means I'll be taking shots at 50NL before the end of February. That's the best case scenario anyway but I'm optimistic.

Overall updated progress:



Feeling good and starting to get into rhythm.

That graph is amazing!

That graph looks a little similar to your last challenge.

Verneer,Are you playing with 50/60 big blinds so you, limit the variance in the marginal spots,You can get people to stack off way lighter when you have over pairs or sets.

I find since i tired one or two sessions playing like you have that the big stacks are calling my river shoves or turn shoves way lighter because they are gettin great odds and i find myself doubling up alot.

When i played full stack i found myself running into smaller stacks and ending up making bad calls due to the fact they only had 1 dollar in behind when i found myself in a marginal spot so i sorta had to go the way.

Also you've got quite an impressive red line.Are you finding it easier to keep a good red line at 25 due to the fact you can play stronger poker rather than a more abc passive style at 10nl.Iv been trying to focus on not burning money in some spots that i found leaks and have found my red line is even so im quite happy with how iv been doing last few hands...Biggest leaks iv found have been,
-calling then check folding from blinds
-playing suited ace rag in EP
-playing general non suited broadway hands in EP.then not cbetting and folding
Im hoping that fixing them leaks will keep my red line even without damaging my other line

My graph looks like that going the other way LOL

Hey Veneer,

Awfully nice of you to do this again for the masses. I have a few points I'd like to bring up:

1) Played correctly, SSing 30-50bb can be far more profitable than people think. As I don't have the 3-3.5k needed for me to be comfortable at 100NL, I'll SS it when the 50NL games are dry and when the BBJ is large. (Fish flock obv.)

2) When SSing, people with full stacks will absolutely call your bets lighter. I'm completely comfortable getting it in with QQ PF, but in my experience, especially as of late, stacking off PF QQ 100bb deep is more often than not, unprofitable.

3) A small suggestion due to the fact that a lot of people are not great post flop... Maybe you could cover donk betting? When to (Multi-way and HU) and when not to. It's something I very rarely if at all see talked about.

Thanks and GL.

saweet sessions at 15BB/100, gotta love them. i'd be interested if you could do a breakdown of >40bbs winning pots in a session like this, running like the sun on the right side of coolers or maximising value in marginal situations?

how did you manage to make red line positive? you just raise to make them fold?

Yeahy for Redline, WD

Would be very interested to see the best hands from the good session...

First off verneer thank you for doing this i'm learning alot out of your posts, and you truly are an inspiration to me.
I also love the charity thing it shows that you are a very kind and generous person.
Anyway i was curious about a hand you posted.

Now i know you are playing with 50bb but seeing as you said villain was a nit i understand that you take AK out of his range since most nits reraise with AK, but i rly can't see how you can take pocket 7s or 3s out of his range seeing as he cold called you pre and reraised your cbet on the flop.
Could you go into more detail about this hand please.

Also on a side note, i think i'm having some trouble getting max value out of my made hands in rush, seeing that alot of the times when i raise preflop and hit a set or something and i cbet the flop they tend to fold alot, or when i cold call with small PP preflop hit a set and raise their cbet they tend to fold alot too, i know this is all very villain dependant but what are the lines you like to take vs certain villains when having a made hand?

PS. sorry if i made any spelling or gramatical errors (i'm not english).
Cut me some slack this is my first post anyway

What's Your Calling Range?

Villain is playing 63/46 over 24 hands. What's your calling range here? What else influences your decision to call/fold?

Full Tilt Poker $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players - View hand 1120769
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $51.28
SB: $13.37
BB: $25.00
UTG: $8.69
UTG+1: $19.00
UTG+2: $25.69
Hero (MP1): $25.93
MP2: $14.75
CO: $26.33

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is MP1 with xx
3 folds, Hero raises to $0.75, 4 folds, BB raises to $25 all in, Hero ... ???

Today I'm actually running hotter than the sun, but here are the winners from yesterday:

Time to start buying in for 100 BB's:

http://weaktight.com/3114866

Always nice to win flips (villain was 22/16 over 52 hands):

http://weaktight.com/3114876

Villain spazzes out:

http://weaktight.com/3114878

Different villain spazzes out (although turn had me worried):

http://weaktight.com/3114879

I cooler villain:

http://weaktight.com/3114881

Big suckout on my part:

http://weaktight.com/3114883

I'd just call with aces kings or queens i guess seeing as it's a pretty small sample but you can def tell he's one of the weaker players in rush (aka fish), calling with AK or AQ here would probably result in a flip tho. He is risking a 100BB stack tho so i dunno maybe he has a rly good hand.
what did/would you call with?

Whether he's done it before, whether he's shown down in a big pot recently and how much sense his line made, whether he's likely to be on tilt (lost a bunch, etc) or has been making other seemingly crazy plays. I would probably call with QQ+ only without knowing anything else.

That's an awful slim read... Still, I'd only call such a large shove with AA or KK. Maybe AKs, not sure on that one... I'm pretty sure QQ are no good here. If you had more hand data backing up that read, maybe, but as is, I'm folding QQ. Any notes on this player that would help you decide?

Was there some read you had that made you go all-in on this one? That looks like an unusual move with JT on a KJ board, with a raise/3-bet in front of you... even with the flush draw.

Decisions on Moving Up, Initial Buy-In

I often get this question:

It's not that easy. Let me give you guys some insight into my own thought process for navigating through the different levels. Some things I consider:

1. Current Bankroll
2. Momentum/Confidence
3. Winrate, sample size, and EV in my recent play
4. Initial Buy-In
5. Reasons for wanting to move

Due to a nice run of cards, some solid play, and a healthy infusion of rakeback, I'm rapidly approaching the $1,000 mark:



Today I was playing pretty meh and break-even until I won three of the biggest pots I've played to date, including one in which I won $46 (184 BB's) and was $83 in all:

Full Tilt Poker $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players - View hand 1120816
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: $33.84
BB: $25.76
Hero (UTG): $53.75
UTG+1: $63.16
UTG+2: $15.30
MP1: $26.70
MP2: $50.16
CO: $11.01
BTN: $32.66

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is UTG with 6 6
Hero raises to $0.50, 1 fold, UTG+2 calls $0.50, 4 folds, SB calls $0.40, 1 fold

Flop: ($1.75) 4 6 J (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $1, UTG+2 raises to $2, SB raises to $3, Hero calls $2, UTG+2 calls $1

Turn: ($10.75) A (3 players)
SB bets $6, Hero calls $6, UTG+2 raises to $11.80 all in, SB calls $5.80, Hero calls $5.80

River: ($46.15) J (3 players - 1 is all in)
SB checks, Hero bets $38.45 all in, SB calls $18.54 all in

Overall progress:



I expect a few things to happen in the next two weeks:

1. I'll grind out around 100,000 - 120,000 hands for the month.
2. I'll clear my $450 Iron Man EOTY bonus.
3. I'll get between $200 - $300 in rakeback by the end of the month.

So, I'll have to start making some decisions about taking shots at 50NL sooner rather than later. For now, I am doing well and enjoying the 25NL games. I'm going to switch from buying in for 50 BB's to buying in for 75 BB's and topping off when I feel good.

$970/$18.75 = 51 BI's for 25NL @ 75 BB's which gives me a huge margin of safety. If I start a downswing, I'm going to adjust my initial buy-in back to 50 BB's, but if I continue running well, I might bump it up to 100 BB's, but probably will just hit 50NL @ 50 BB's. It's the more aggressive move and it will allow me to start accumulating hands on the 50NL regs.

So - that's my current situation. I've played around 3,500 hands today already in around 3 hours and will probably put in a few evening sessions cause by God, it's Friday and the games BETTER be good.

Bottom Line: I feel confident about my game, my bankroll is healthy, my momentum is surging, and my target level is 100NL. Everything seems to point to starting to take shots at 50NL very soon.

FEELIN' LUCKY BABY!!! ONETIMEOMGSPADEPLSSHIPITHOLLA!!!

I really don't think he has KK or AA here. Still, I'll include them in his range to edge on the conservative side in these big pots. The range I put him on is 88+, ATs+, AQ+, KQ. Honestly, it might even include lower suited aces who knows. We have to have about 48% equity to call, and hands that have about 48% equity against that range are: JJ+, AK, AQs.

Wow, the volume of hands you're putting in per month is simply incredible. How many hours a day are you playing?

On a side brag, I've finally reached 50NL this week with a bankroll of 1.5 boxes of ziti. I'm really settling into Rush poker and find that at 50NL players are a little more aggressive pre-flop but still overall nitty. Post-flop players are still pretty bad.

with just HUD stats i probably call w/ TT+, AK. if i have a reason to believe he is spazzy or he's done it before i'll widen it to 99+, AK, AQ

Gamboooooooool!!!!

dont you think the river bet is a bit thin given theres a flush and 2 4straights on board?